'Ken Dedes': Refreshing touch on gender power plays

By Yogita Tahil Ramani

JAKARTA (JP): A movie screen descended at one point in the modern dance-drama Ken Dedes, projecting a hand penning a poetic message.

"She rises from a monument," it read. "On the way to her destiny, she scatters frangipani on land, smelling as sweet as her perfume. She rises from a monument, and walks towards her tomb, following the old winding road of Ken Dedes."

It brims with symbolism of gender power plays -- the monument signifying female submissiveness, the flowers equated with death.

Those directly behind the production, performed last week at the Gedung Kesenian Jakarta, were choreographer Rusdy Rukmarata and his wife, production manager Aiko Rukmarata, from Eksotika Karmawibhangga Indonesia (EKI) dance company.

The performance is modeled around women manipulating men, often through feminine wiles, to achieve status in society, and later lording their power by treading on other men. To women's advantage, they can often mask their actions by playing one off against the other.

In one act, Ken Dedes (Takako Leen) writhes wantonly as though possessed, while her casanova lover, Tunggul Ametung (Edmund G. Gaerlan), watches from a distance. They are shadowed by a black pedestal where tongue-wagging women wait desperately to be singled out, and men bang their hands lustily, egging him on. He allows her to become the contemporary boardroom queen and socialite in return for sexual favors and servility.

She later takes a new lover, Ken Arok (Gede Juliantara), as her former beau has seemingly been traumatized into homosexuality at the shock of seeing the empowered woman.

Aiko discussed the concepts. "Disparities are so overwhelming, they (women) are not even cynical anymore about hopping from one bed to another. They either define it as a corporate-ladder survival mechanism or just being modern. Most even enjoy it."

Rusdy offered that perhaps women were forced by circumstance to assume the roles. "Can we blame them? There are no definite answers to the question, just a very disturbing phenomena that we have put forward in this manner for public awareness."

Born in Bandung 35 years ago, Rusdy mastered classical ballet and traditional Indonesian dancing, earning a scholarship to study dancing at the London Contemporary Dance School in 1985.

He gives character to his performances. There is the disciplined rigid classicism people so often attribute to ballet dancing, but with enough leeway to allow talented performers like Takako to emote with fervor and individualism.

"The concepts are abstract in reality. What we have performed on stage is the idealistic version," said Takako.

Submissive

"It is straightforward really. Women have always been submissive. They were brought up in a man's world, just like Ken Dedes. They know that physical attributes can get them everywhere. So they use them."

She believed that women assume the domineering roles of men with higher status.

"Once they do, they have the upper hand. The whole concept of this performance is that women, instead of being her own self, chooses to dominate the man. She chooses to be just like him. Why? Literally, both genders have adopted the "chicken and egg" theory. Both genders do not want to relent to bettering themselves."

Rusdy added his perception to this: "The woman can rise above the man, through her intuitiveness and maturity. But she chooses to be just like the man, vile and vindictive.

"She can be the independent thinker she so rightly deserves and needs to be in a globalized era as this. But she chooses to resent the man. How could one be independent, if the "man" factor is still involved?"

The interfusion of painter and photographer Firman Ichsan's contemporary works and background settings with music director G. Djaduk Ferianto's operatic incantation gave for dynamic big-city images and was almost moving in its frenzied way.

Creating a stagnant, eerie, sometimes morbid but captivating mood was narration by shadow puppetmaster Ki Hadi Sudjiwo Tejo. It was lyrical and heavy with romanticism despite the performance's dose of cynicism.

Rusdy said the concept of Ken Dedes in his mind was still incomplete. "Just as I am still looking for a justified ending, women out there are still tethering to lies to find desired endings."

There were a number of opening acts, a couple of which were exceptional. Dapithaton, or When the Sun Sets, is the story about aging lovers at a park reminiscing about when they were young. It was performed by Rita Dewi and modern dance instructor at EKI Edmund Gaerlan. Choreographed by Edmund, it also featured Rusdy's parents, Max and Sonja Rukmarata.

Another was The Break In/Cleo's Apartment, where a forever- unsatisfied abstruse couple entangled in a sexual relationship confuse it with a loving, meaningful one. Dancers were Takako, Lilies, Siswanto Kodrata and Hendy Leonathan. Rusdy explained that the dance explored the confusion between love and lust, which ultimately leads to disappointment and dejection.